I have the Nauticam NA-800 housing with a Nauticam 8.5" acrylic dome and I've been suffering some concerning internal reflections from the rig. I've read on here that most of the reflections that people are getting are a result of the internal flash "showing through" to the dome and reflecting. I'm using an Ikelite hotshot connection so that's an impossibility for my particular case. I didn't notice any other suggestions on the board which might be causing it other than strobe placement. I have tried moving the strobes both fore and aft of the dome and pointing them away. I still seem to get some portion of reflection.

I was curious if there are any other factors that may be leading to this issue that I haven't thought of? Obviously everything in the dome is black in color so there isn't any white paint that could be causing them. I've attached a sample to illustrate the type of reflection I'm seeing. I also notice this type of reflection when aiming the camera into the sun. Obviously it's something to do with light reflecting from an outside source.

I've only used a Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens on the camera with the dome so that could be a partial cause/effect of the reflections. I have a UV filter on the front as well.

In the meantime, one quick-fix I could do is shoot in DX mode which would effectively crop most of the reflection out...but of course I did not buy the D800E to shoot it in crop mode. :-)

I do mostly cave diving photography, and I get this when divers face their bright HID primary lights (or LED or whatever technology...) at the camera.

The light comes in and reflects off the front of the lens, which then bounces off the inside of the dome and back into the sensor, showing up in my pictures.

Some people take thin velvet type fabric and put it on anything on the lense that's not part of the glass optics, but I also don't like bright lights blowing out the image so I just train models to shine their light to the side, and it gets rid of it most of the time.

I'm reluctant to try and shoot without my UV filter since I'll be trying an underwater green-water filter this weekend for ambient light photography. That will require a filter to be on the front element so let's hope that's not the issue. Although, in the strongest-reflection picture it appears as though threads are showing in the reflection. Not good!

I'll be at Our World Underwater in Chicago next month so I planned to ask Ryan Canyon from Reef Photo about the issue. Maybe he can point me in some new direction for alleviating these.

I notice that it's primarily your UV filter ring that is reflecting like this; presumably it has a relatively shiny surface on it? This is likely the main cause of the issue. Have you tried shooting without this UV filter?

I have seen many people paint the shiny portions of their lenses with matte black paint to help alleviate this, especially lenses with shiny silver or gold rings on them. Since it's just a UV filter on the front, what do you have to lose by painting it matte so it doesn't reflect?

Notice how in each of these images you are shooting into relatively strong sunlight? When enough light hits your lens through the dome, it reflects onto the inside of the dome. So if you can, avoid pointing your housed camera directly into strong light sources that you know will cause this reflection.

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Posted 18 January 2013 - 07:26 AM

Folks,This is a common problem when shooting into the sun at relative shallow depths. I think the first to post here on the solution was Stephen Frink a few years ago. A black sharpie can be helpful and people have tried flat black paint which can work. A good optically coated dome helps to reduce the reflections. Stephen posted a solution back in 08 using black flocked paper available from Edmund Scientific but they no longer show it as available. His article for Seacam on his solution is here. I’ve used black gaffers tape from Shurtape (CP-743) on the front of the lens which I think helps.

If anyone has found a replacement for the black paper I'm sure they'll jump in.

I used to have a simillar problem when I first got the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye lens.

Many of the Nikon lenses have a decorative gold ring and gold lettering on the lens barrel which seems to reflect the light and caused me the same sort of problem.

I used a piece of black elastic which I stitched into a loop which fits around the lens barrel and covers the gold ring and lettering and seemed to solve the problem. It's cheap, easily available, doesn't mark the lens, stays in place inside the housing and can be easily changed between lenses.

I used indelible black ink. I first used it to black out the inscription round the front element of a macro lens I used because I was ashamed that people might have seen it was a 105mm Cosina I bought seconhand for $70. At f22, it was perfectly sharp!

I buy my own photographic kit. Diving equipment manufacturers and diving services suppliers get even-handed treatment from me whether they choose to advertise in the publications I write for or not. All the equipment I get on loan is returned as soon as it is finished with.Did you know you can now get Diver Mag as an iPad/Android app?

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Posted 19 July 2015 - 11:58 AM

I've just got back from a southern Red Sea trip to find a lot of my images shot in the caves at St John's have reflection "issues". I was shooting a Sigma 15mm FE inside a Subal DP-230 port. Argh. Happily I have been able to PS/LR most of the problems out of the image. Annoying though.

As Steve explained, for me too the issue was mainly in relatively shallow water (say around 5-10m) in darkish areas with shafts of sunlight hitting the dome. It looked brilliant. Apart from the internal reflections

Thanks to Aussiebyron, Ronyx, Steve and others for the helpful ideas on fixing it....